Robert Russell Apiaries - Update

[MTINAZ]

I wanted to let everyone know some of the information that I discovered while trying to figure out who stole my hives. Robert Russell is running a big scam. He was going by the name Rob hughes on the phone and in person saying that rob hughes was Roberts employee and crew chief. He is very good at this and always referred to Robert as "Doc" in the third person. He even sent me PM's stating Rob was in Florida running their bees there and he was all over the country tending bees. I discovered this after the sheriffs office showed me a mug shot of Robert Russell and it was the same person I had been working with calling him self rob hughes. I personally do not believe he has more than a few hive and does not have all these different strains. Any strains he does have must of came from his fathers operation. The sheriff's office also told us he was charged in Philadelphia MS with taking someones money for bees and never delivering them. I believe most of the people working for him and running his "Russell apiaries family" sites also know all this. I would recommend anyone with orders with anyone associated with Robert Russell cancel them. The man is a dishonest crook. I speculate but have no proof that he was taking my bees all year long and selling them as nucs with phillip butts, one of his "employees"

[BeeGhost]

Short rope...........tall tree...........oughtta do the trick.

[Vance G]

When I was falling out of the true believer fold and still frequenting his web site, I remember him offering people his fathers unused honey production yards where huge yields were the norm and his people would take care of them for you! I am sure they never got overpopulated.

[MTINAZ]

When I was falling out of the true believer fold and still frequenting his web site, I remember him offering people his fathers unused honey production yards where huge yields were the norm and his people would take care of them for you! I am sure they never got overpopulated.

I think I was one of the few dumb enough to fall for this scam. There was only 10-12 hives of other peoples that were therer when I went to pick up what was left of my hives. If there was any huge honey crop it walked off with my hives.

[Brandy]

Hey Mtinaz, sorry to hear about all that. Be sure to keep us posted on any more details you find out since you're one of the few that have actually been on the scene. The rest of us only have had our $$ taken and thought RA were crooks. Now you can verify that!

Might be interesting to have some more chats with Paypal, since that was one of the many ways that RA was able to hide and not return the funds. Good luck, getting anything back from them.

[Tiny Barn Farm]

Hey Mtinaz, sorry to hear about all that. Be sure to keep us posted on any more details you find out since you're one of the few that have actually been on the scene. The rest of us only have had our $$ taken and thought RA were crooks. Now you can verify that!

Might be interesting to have some more chats with Paypal, since that was one of the many ways that RA was able to hide and not return the funds. Good luck, getting anything back from them.

If you paid for something via pay pal and the seller didn't send it to your confirmed address(or sent it at all) and has proof via a tracking or delivery confirmation number Pay pal has to refund your money. I had a friend sell a boat on ebay, buyer paid with Pay pal then a month later(after picking the boat up) called pay pal and cancelled the payment. My friend was told since he didn't send it to the confirmed address listed with pay pal it's as though the buyer never received it and was given a refund. He had to get a lawyer involved and eventually got his money but it was a big harry mess. Google "paypal seller protection" Pay pal is very buyer friendly!

[urbanoutlaw]

Great. If this is the case, what's the likelihood of getting your money back from a subproducer? Sure wish I'd known this before I placed the order....

[Brandy]

Try it, ask for the refund before paypals time limit is up!! You gotta believe they also know what's going on.....

[NY_BLUES]

As far as queen strains go, i do believe that we are offering genuinely good queens, we sub producers i mean. I didnt offer to raise and sell some of Russell's more exotic strains, but stuck to the Sunkist Italian, and buckfast. It is not hard to think that these queen types would have the claimed genes that were said that were in them, as there are multiple queen breeders that offer buckfast, such as miksa and ferguson, and there have been multiple advertisments by multiple people, offering the sunkist line, that is really a product of JN Russell. If robert got JN's hives, then he must have gotten JN's genetic lines also. This is speculation on my part, as i have never seen their operation.
This is why i have offered a refund to anyone that purchased queens from me, as Russell Apiaries NY,for this coming spring, as i do want to raise queens and offer them for sale, and i dont want to add bad blood from such a terrible issue as this.
specialkayme, i applaude you, it takes a lot for anyone to say that they were wrong, but you also went above and beyond to find out about RA, thank you

[Joel]

NY Blues - Kudo's for you for stepping up to the plate and taking responsiblity - it says alot about the kind of person/business person you are as opposed to remaining silent

Sippy - Taking everyting into account - including your friendship with Ricky - your're golden with me! Perhaps much of your issue was the passion attached to your posts which I now look at as trying prevent further damage. Clearly running 11 hives there is no commercial gain here for you in the near future.

Mtinaz - What you have told us about the investigation sound like good follow through and I think one way or another RR may end up in hot water up to his neck and those around him who have knowledge will be singing like birds to avoid possible prosecution. In any crime where there is more than one person with knowledge, as obviously stealing your hives was, there will be a weak link in the chain and I suspect The Sheriffs Dept. will find and exploit that link. keep us posted.

[Brandy]

NY Blues, who did you deal with?? Did you ever speak to Dr. Robert Russell, or only emails? Visit his breeding yards?

[Lburou]

NY Blues - Kudo's for you for stepping up to the plate and taking responsiblity - it says alot about the kind of person/business person you are as opposed to remaining silent

Sippy - Taking everyting into account - snip- your're golden with me! -snip-

Mtinaz - What you have told us about the investigation sound like good follow through and I think one way or another RR may end up in hot water up to his neck and those around him who have knowledge will be singing like birds to avoid possible prosecution. -snip-

Good summary Joel, to which I would add a suggestion that Barry add a new forum listing bad actors in the bee business, actors to avoid if you want to deal with reputable vendors. Also for Barry, consider going to and change Rob Hughes's name to something like: The good Rob Hughes.

ADDED: A feedback forum like this might help the board in the future. I'm a moderator on the board at that link. The feedback forum is a lion on a leash, but can work for the good of the membership.

[kincade]

I'm still finding it hard to reconcile why my order was received and so many others were taken. RR's 'method' in this fiasco seems to have little rhyme or reason and I feel so sorry for those who were taken for much larger amounts of money than I had personally risked.

I can't seem to find my last post on this in the Russell thread, but to reiterate my experience I ordered a single queen last spring to replace a bad queen in a package I had received. Queen was delayed in the MS post office for 3 days in the heat and did not lay for 3 weeks. After an email to 'victoria' RR sent another queen at no charge overnight USPS. I started the first queen on a nuc who started laying shortly thereafter (banked queen or just the heat?) and both hives did fairly well over the summer seem to be still alive (although it is still too cold here to do a full inspection). Had I thought my money was at risk or any shady business was occurring I would have ordered elsewhere. I can't figure out why he would fulfill mine and send a replacement at his cost yet take so many other's money without so much as a response. It's sad and infuriating.

I just looked through some of my correspondence with 'Victoria' last spring and saw a message that might help some of you out. I had told her I appreciated them sending a replacement queen so quickly, and asked where I could send a thank you card.

I will pass that msg along. If you'd like you can send a card to 212 Fannin Landing Cir. Brandon MS 39047. I basically eat, sleep, and live work lately. Lol. Thank you for the kind words and I hope you enjoy your queens.
Victoria Ball
Russell Apiaries
www.russellapiaries.com

In any case, I'm not sure if that address had been posted earlier but if not maybe it might help someone out. Good luck to you all who have lost their hard earned dollars. You have my sympathies and you've been nicer about it than I would have been.

[camero7]

That address is also the address for American Comfort Portable Toilet Rental. 212 Fannin Landing Cir, Brandon, MS 39047. (601) 829-3721

[Barry]

212 Fannin Landing Cir. Brandon MS 39047. I basically eat, sleep, and live work lately. Lol. Thank you for the kind words and I hope you enjoy your queens.
Victoria Ball

You'll notice on Google that there is no Victoria Ball in Brandon. There are 3 Victoria Ball's in MS and the closest one to this address is over 100 miles away in Louisville! That would be one daily commute, wouldn't it!

[guyross]

That address is where I saw BSH equipment.

I'm still finding it hard to reconcile why my order was received and so many others were taken. RR's 'method' in this fiasco seems to have little rhyme or reason and I feel so sorry for those who were taken for much larger amounts of money than I had personally risked.

I can't seem to find my last post on this in the Russell thread, but to reiterate my experience I ordered a single queen last spring to replace a bad queen in a package I had received. Queen was delayed in the MS post office for 3 days in the heat and did not lay for 3 weeks. After an email to 'victoria' RR sent another queen at no charge overnight USPS. I started the first queen on a nuc who started laying shortly thereafter (banked queen or just the heat?) and both hives did fairly well over the summer seem to be still alive (although it is still too cold here to do a full inspection). Had I thought my money was at risk or any shady business was occurring I would have ordered elsewhere. I can't figure out why he would fulfill mine and send a replacement at his cost yet take so many other's money without so much as a response. It's sad and infuriating.

I just looked through some of my correspondence with 'Victoria' last spring and saw a message that might help some of you out. I had told her I appreciated them sending a replacement queen so quickly, and asked where I could send a thank you card.



In any case, I'm not sure if that address had been posted earlier but if not maybe it might help someone out. Good luck to you all who have lost their hard earned dollars. You have my sympathies and you've been nicer about it than I would have been.

[MTINAZ]

I'm still finding it hard to reconcile why my order was received and so many others were taken. RR's 'method' in this fiasco seems to have little rhyme or reason and I feel so sorry for those who were taken for much larger amounts of money than I had personally risked.

I can't seem to find my last post on this in the Russell thread, but to reiterate my experience I ordered a single queen last spring to replace a bad queen in a package I had received. Queen was delayed in the MS post office for 3 days in the heat and did not lay for 3 weeks. After an email to 'victoria' RR sent another queen at no charge overnight USPS. I started the first queen on a nuc who started laying shortly thereafter (banked queen or just the heat?) and both hives did fairly well over the summer seem to be still alive (although it is still too cold here to do a full inspection). Had I thought my money was at risk or any shady business was occurring I would have ordered elsewhere. I can't figure out why he would fulfill mine and send a replacement at his cost yet take so many other's money without so much as a response. It's sad and infuriating.

He also treated me very good in the past sending out queens and refunding some money on some. That is why I trusted him, I never had an issue. I all really is confusing. I know somewhere there is a post from joseph clemens (who I think most would agree is a decent guy) when he got some russell queens about how good they were and how well they did.

[AstroBee]

All I can say is that I'm so glad that I dodged this bullet. I was one of the first to start talking with RR about becoming a "sub-producer". We carried out these discussions long before the term "sub-producer" was even considered. We had lengthy PM's about the intricate measures that he required to become part of the family. It all seemed very convoluted and I even bounced it off our state apiarist, who issued a "proceed with caution" note to me. One of the last communications (came through as Robert Hughes) was an invitation to become a sub-producer and the requirement of over $3000 to join the "club". With all the complaints coupled with "cloak and mirror" nonsense discussed in our PM's I decided that there were other avenues to queen rearing.

He sure seemed real.... I guess this is why so many gotten taken. A colleague from one of our local clubs got taken based upon my recommendation. I plan to make it right with that man this season by providing replacement queens free of charge.

[Brandy]

AstroBee, that was a pretty good sized bullet you dodged!

[NY_BLUES]

Thomas,
I do know how people here feel, as I am out a hefty sum of cash also. Please dont think that I am trying to pull the wool over anyones eyes, I have lost in this scam too. I just wish i would have researched everything closer when the sub producers group started, then i wouldnt be out as much money.